Roses are Perennials
by Mcfreakingnerd
Summary: Amy Rose is wounded after a long battle and is going to need time to recover, but she is in bad shape and it won't be long before things go awry.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Darkness. Darkness was spreading out across the vastness of space until a bright piercing light destroyed it like a bomb. That's the last thing the gang could remember about the journey they had just returned from. Everyone confused about what happened, only knowing two things. First was the battle had been won. Second, Amy was hurt. She was knocked out cold, didn't even flinch when the X Tornado landed back home. And her fur had turned stark white, but no one could recall when it changed or why. Sonic carried her back to Tails's workshop where he performed a quick glance over. He checked Amy's pulse, breathing, temperature, and blood pressure.

Tails turned around to look at his friends, who had been anxiously looking over his shoulders the whole time, watching as he frowned at his findings.

"So how does she look Tails?" Sonic asked, trying to hide the worry in his voice, playing it was casual as possible.

"Well, she has low blood pressure, a slow heartbeat, irregular breathing, and she's a little cold and she hasn't woken up despite the commotion so I'd say Amy's in a coma."

Knuckles gasped, seemingly shocked, "No, not a coma! Wait… What is a coma?"

"A coma is a state of deep unconsciousness Knuckles."

"So she's just sleeping? Why not wake her up?" Sticks questioned.

"Well, we can't really, she'll just wake up when she wakes up."

"What can we do to help?"

"Amy should probably be kept somewhere comfortable, and one of us should always be with her in case she needs anything."

Sonic ran up to Amy's door and knocked hoping that Amy would be the one to open it for him, but much to his disappointment, Tails was the one who let him in. It had been a few days since she went into her comatose state and everyone was already on edge. Even when the team would try to hang out together to try and take their minds off things, they would eventually fall into a pattern of mentioning Amy and what she would do if she was with them. Nothing felt the same. The dreadful empty feeling sucked all the life out of the air and was attempting to suffocate everyone. Sonic was doing his best to put on a brave face, smile and say that everything was going to be okay with a reassuring thumbs up as the cherry on top; on the inside however, he felt just as stressed as anyone. Maybe even more so.

Tails looked so sad and drained. "Make sure to keep a close eye on her and call if you need anything."

"Don't worry buddy, I've got this," Sonic grinned and winked.

Tails only nodded and said, "Okay," before leaving the two hedgehogs all alone. Once Sonic had ensured he was gone, he dropped the act and let his mouth switch into a concerned frown. The blue hedgehog walked into Amy's room. It wasn't grand by any means, but it was comfortable. Big enough for a full sized bed, a dresser, closet, and a slightly out of place chair that looked like it belonged outside on a patio. One of his friends must have brought it in there so they could be in the same room as Amy as much as possible. He went ahead and took a seat.

Sonic couldn't help but glance over at his friend every so often. She seemed so still and secreane, any passerby would probably think she was dead. But she wasn't. Amy Rose was alive because as fragile and weak she appeared at the moment, she was one of the toughest people Sonic knew. She was going to wake up one day, he was sure of it. She wouldn't stop fighting until this was all over.

Her fur hadn't changed back to it's usual pink, and none of them could figure out how it changed in the first place, because none of them saw it happen. It seemed as though one minute she was pink and the next it was a deafening white. In the light of her darkened bedroom, it appeared almost illuminescent. Everytime she took a breath it was shaky and slow, like her body was unsure of what to do with the new air it had just taken in. Sonic didn't like the look of that, and pondered if it had been something Tails had noticed while he was there.

He turned his head away, leaned back in the chair and closed his eyes. If he was asleep he wouldn't have to worry. Then what felt like a few seconds later, he thought he heard his name.

"Sonic," Amy called. His eyes shot open, and there she was, sitting on the floor not far from his chair. She was glowing, literally glowing, and her green eyes were burrowing into his. "Sonic, I will give you a tarot reading." There were three stacks of Tarot cards lying in front of her.

"Amy, you're awake!" He slid off the chair and onto the floor. The blue blur reached out for her hand to make sure she was real, but she didn't make advancements toward him.

"No. I am not awake."

This made him stop reaching out for her, and he looked up at the bed, and there Amy was, still laying immobile.

"Take three cards, one from each pile."

He looked at the glowing Amy in front of him, and the one sleeping like a rock. "But how are you here and there?"

"You are dreaming. We are dreaming. Our paths have crossed here. I am here to answer the question you must know the answer to." She did not move, flinch, or so much as blink as she spoke, just kept staring at him, waiting for him to pick his cards.

He felt uneasy about choosing the cards, since he wasn't sure he believed in any of this psychic stuff, but he was sure they weren't going to get anywhere if he didn't. So he just choose three of each pile and held them in his hand. "What now, do I look at them or-"

"Ask a question first."

"What kind of question?"

"Anything that is important to you. Generally people ask about their future, relationships, or health. The question should come from deep within your soul."

He took a minute to think. What did he want to know? He wasn't all that concerned with his future, he never looked too far ahead, he was more of an in the moment kind of guy. And he was pretty sure all of his relationships between him and his friends were fine, maybe a little awkward without Any around… Amy. He turned to glance at her again. Health.. Then it struck him, he didn't have to ask about himself.

"Are you, or is Amy going to be okay?"

"Are you certain that is the question you would like to ask?"

Sonic grinned, "Yeah, go ahead and lock it in."

The three cards he held in his hand began to glow and floated up in front of his face. "The four of swords, the seven of swords, and the tower. The cards tell me Amy Rose will have some time to rest, heal, and recuperate until she is betrayed and deceived. In turn this betrayal will bring about chaos and a dramatic change within her. She will have to rebuild her tower once the foundation has been destroyed." Sonic watched as his cards fell right back into their respective piles and when he looked back up the glowing Amy was gone.

"Amy?" Shifting his eyes back to the bed, he noticed she was gone as well, and the panic began to settle in. "Amy?" he called again, louder than before. He got off the floor and rushed for the bedroom door, and as he opened it, that's when he woke up.

Sonic was in the chair and Amy was in her bed. He took a huge sigh of relief. It was just a dream. An oddly specific, scary, dream. What did that glowy Amy mean when she said Amy would be betrayed? By whom? Who would want to wrong her? And that thing she said about rebuilding her tower? Amy didn't have a tower. It didn't make sense to him. But it left him feeling uneasy, because it sounded like everything went downhill from there. He needed to shake himself of that dream, since it probably didn't mean anything anyway. It was just a dream. A really eerie dream. He closed his eyes and tried to forget about the whole thing. All he needed to do was clear his mind and get comfortable again.

But he could not get himself to sleep no matter what he did. He stretched as he got up from the chair and stood by the side of Amy's bed. She was half way curled up with the blanket burritoed around her, and unsatisfied look on her face.

"Ames," he said, trying to see if he could stir her awake.

She just let out a shaky breath as a response. A little frown appeared on his muzzle. Bending down closer to her face, he spoke to her again, "Hey," he put a hand on her shoulder to give her a little shake, but that's when he noticed she felt terribly cold. "Amy, you're freezing." So he pulled as much of the comforter from under her as possible, threw his arms around her, and pulled Amy close in an attempt to warm her up. She was small, but she wasn't boney, actually she was quite muscular. Something odd was her skin felt a little rough and bumpy, like it was irritated. He hadn't quite realized what he was doing until he after he had already become the big spoon. Sonic's cheeks turned red as he started to become sleepy again, comforted by Amy's presence beside him. For someone who had been in bed for three straight days, she smelled nice. Like roses and vanilla. Part of him wished she would roll over and hold him back, but he knew she wouldn't be able to for the time being. The world melted into nothing as Sonic fell into a deep sleep.

Later, as sunshine broke through the curtains that had been so desperate to keep the sun out, Sonic slowly opened his eyes. All he could see were white quills. He had Amy pressed right up against him, and had held a tight grip around her waist all night. Gently, he untangled himself from her and rolled out of bed.

Amy's house just didn't feel the same without her. Of course she was technically there, but she couldn't wake up and bring life to the rest of the house. Normally she would bake in her kitchen, or read in her living room or tend to her garden. Amy was always up and moving, keeping herself busy. Sonic looked around at how sad everything seemed now that she was holed up in bed. Nothing would be the same until she woke up.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

After about a week, the townspeople were starting to ask questions about Amy. Her friends learned that's she was way more involved in town activities than they had realized, as many people had similar ponderings about her whereabouts. They heard things like, "Have you seen Amy? She was supposed to lead our knitting group this week." "Amy is one of the instructors for the self defense class, but she wasn't there this last time." "Miss Rose is a part of the committee in charge of deciding where we will start the community garden." "She was scheduled to read aloud to the kids during children's hours at the library but she never showed." "We take cooking classes together at town hall. Is she okay? She hasn't missed one class before, heck, she's never even been late before." One after another, wondering why she didn't come to this, why she didn't show up for that.

"Alright team, looks like we might have to step up and take Amy's place for a while." Sonic said, using his best, 'We can do it!' voice.

Tails nodded in agreement, "Yeah, all those people expect her to do all of these things, but she can't, we have to!"

"Okay, sure, but how are we going to explain Amy's absence?"

"We could just say she's in a coma." Knuckles suggested.

"I don't know guys, wouldn't everyone just show up at her house if they knew she was in a coma and bother her?" Tails had a point, the whole town would be hounding her until she woke up if they knew.

"What if we said she was kidnapped by aliens?" Sticks was met by disapproving looks from her teammates. She shrugged, "Well, if were going to lie it might as well be a believable, realistic lie."

Sonic piped up, "Maybe we should say she went on vacation or something instead, that way no one will worry about her."

"Great idea Sonic," Tails smiled.

Sticks rolled her eyes, "Sure, pick the boring lie,"

"I think honesty is the best policy," Knuckles growled. "But, I suppose I can say she is on vacation."

Sonic decided to take Amy's place as one of the instructors for the self defense class and at first things were a little awkward. He walked into a room mostly filled with women, varying in all different ages, species, shapes, and sizes. The other teachers were women too, one of whom he recognized as Blaze the Cat, and he not only could he feel the disappointment filling the room, no one was afraid to let him know how upset they were to see him come in.

"Where's Amy?" Shouted on older woman from the back of the room.

Sonic put on a big award winning smile and said, "She couldn't make it today, but don't worry, she sent me in her place."

"Why?" a young girl in the front questioned. Then a hushed murmur of why's whisked through the room.

"She is out of town on vacation, so she-"

"Vacation?"

"Why would she agree to be a part of this class and then go on vacation?" An onslaught of, "Why, where, who, whats, and how's" rang out.

Sonic had to save the situation somehow. He went with the flow and said the first explanation he could think of. "Listen, I understand you're disappointed but this vacation wasn't exactly planned. Amy has been under a lot of stress lately, she's always busy helping save the world or helping you guys out here in town, and she never takes time for herself. So even though she didn't want to, my friends and I encouraged her to go. She finally agreed, saying resting was the best thing for her to do right now. So please just let her have this time to catch up on some well deserved Z's. Amy will be back with you guys soon but for the time being I'm here in her place, so let's get to learning some self defense techniques." he gave the crowd a big thumbs up and kept smiling. It seemed like a good enough answer for the time being, and he definitely did not want to have to get any more specific. All he wanted to do was get on with the class, and not have to think about Amy being in her coma any more than he had to.

He found out he was rather useful in class, not so much because he was teaching but because he posed as a great fake threat, letting everyone in the room have their chance to get at him for allowing Amy to leave without telling anyone, but he felt it was a small price to pay to keep up Amy's reputation, and to keep her house from being bombarded by everyone in their town. Since he happened to be a good fighter as well, he was able to give tips when he felt that someone's attack could be faster, stronger, more effective. Of course he wasn't moving as fast as he was used to, but trying to make these people pin down someone moving faster than the speed of sound wouldn't have been fair or useful. All he could do was hope that Amy would be back from "vacation" soon.

One of the other class instructors, Blaze came up to Sonic after all of the students had left. "Hey, is Amy okay? She hasn't gone on a vacation for a few months now." she made sure to put air quotes around "vacation".

"She's gone on vacation before?" Sonic gave her the side eye.

"That's what she used to say when she would suddenly disappear for a few days. 'Sorry guys I took a short vacation' 'I went out on a long weekend and lost track of time' 'I had some things to take care of out of town' it seemed like she had a bag full of excuses and reasons when she would be gone without a trace, but she's never been gone for a whole week before. That's why I thought I'd ask if everything was okay."

Sonic thought about telling her the real reason Amy wasn't there for a second, but first he asked, "Has she ever told you where she really was?"

She scoffed, "No, even when she'd show up to whatever event it was all bruised and bandaged up she'd give me some blanket statement about losing her temper or getting too competitive over some sport. I could never get a real answer out of her." Blaze shook her head and shrugged. "It just makes her more mysterious I suppose."

"Yeah, I suppose," Sonic slowly replied, unsure if he completely understood what he was being told.

"Oh well, if you say she's on vacation, then Amy Rose must be on vacation. I'll see you later, Sonic."

When he and his friends met back up at Amy's later that day, he told his friends about the first day of stepping in for the usually pink hedgehog.

"Wow, do think we'll all be greeted like that?" Tails scratched the top of his head, like he was trying to imagine a room of people unhappy to see Sonic the Hedgehog walk in.

"I don't know but I'd be ready for it guys."

"I just can't believe Amy has all of these responsibilities. All I do is watch over emeralds." Knuckles seemed rather impressed by all of the things Amy was expected to keep up on.

"Yeah, I guess she needed a way to keep busy, or several," Tails chuckled.

Sonic was still in shock from his conversation with Blaze, so when Tails waved his hand in front of his face, he snapped back into the moment. "Sorry guys, Blaze just said something that freaked me out after our class was over."

"Did she notice her electronics are beginning to turn on her and realise the robot apocalypse is nigh?"

"No, something almost as out there though. Have you guys ever noticed a time when Amy was just gone?"

"I'm not sure I know what you mean, Sonic," Knuckles answered.

"Well, Blaze said that Amy used to just go missing for a few days and come back and act like everything was normal."

"Maybe Amy's a robot and she leaves town to get repairs done so no one knows and she can slip through the cracks without us knowing,"

"Guys, this sounds like it was serious, she said sometimes Amy would come back looking all beat up and wouldn't admit where she was," Sonic shook his head, trying to process everything.

"She could be in a fight club, you're not supposed to talk about those," it was hard to tell if Knuckles was making a clever yet poorly calculated joke, or if he really thought that could be the answer to the puzzle.

"Okay, we should figure out how many other people in town noticed this trend because you'd think we would be the first one's to know if Amy had left town,"

"Unless she's trying to hide something from us, like that she's a robot. You know what they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

"Sticks, I don't think she'd be in a coma right now if she was a robot."

"Well, it's just one theory." Sticks crossed her arms.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The team made the decision that they could trust Vanilla with their secret and as she was used to healing sick people, they thought she would be the right rabbit to ask for help.

"Thanks for coming and checking on Amy Vanilla," Tails said as she entered the living room from tending to her patient.

"You're welcome Tails, anything for Creams friends," She giggled. "But I have to ask, what happened? She seems really hurt this time."

"Well that's just the thing ma'am, none of us can't quite remember all that went on in our grand battle,"

"Yeah, all we know is Amy took the brunt of it."

"Oh that girl," Vanilla smiled and waved her hand dismissively, "She's always getting herself into some kind of scrap isn't she?"

"What do you mean, Vanilla?"

"She used to show up at my house in the middle of the night asking for bandages, I must've lost count of how many times before I gave her her own first aid kit."

"Wait, what do you mean?"

"Well at least once a month, pretty consistently for a while she would come and ask for bandages, and I didn't know why at first until the day she came and I could tell she was in pain." No one said anything, silence had eaten up the air and they were all hanging on to Vanilla's words. "Well, it had to have been over a year ago now, but she came to my door at night and it seemed like a normal greeting at first.

'Hi Vanilla! I was wondering if I could get a few more bandages,' and she was acting all chipper, but I could see her holding on to her side.

So I said, 'Why don't you come in while I fetch them for you?' and she hesitated for a second.

'No, I don't want to be more of a bother than I'm already being.' I could hear that she was out of breath, and that's when I saw the blood on her glove.

I felt the mother instinct kicked in and I lost my composure for a minute. 'Amy Rose you tell me what happened right now. Why are you bleeding? Who did this?'

She tried to play it off like it was no big deal but I wasn't having it and I told her she better tell me or else. So she said, "Okay, okay, I got into a bit of a… fight with one of Eggman's mechs and I got hurt but really, Vanilla don't worry about me. I'm not going to let this happen again.' and I cleaned her up and sent her on her way, but part of me still wonders why she wouldn't tell me the whole story."

The room was practically dead with silence. This left everyone with more questions than answers. Once Vanilla had left, the friends all were deep in thought about what all of this meant.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

From everything they learned in the last month, Amy had secrets she wasn't telling anyone, and her condition didn't seem to be getting any better. What was gathered was that she had been leaving town unexpectedly at least once a month up until about half a year ago. Whenever she'd come back, she would avoid talking about where she had been and be in worse shape than when she had left, usually in small ways, like bruises or torn clothes, but sometimes she'd have cuts or black eyes that she would do her best to conceal. The townsfolk just accepted her reasons for being gone and would intentionally avoid asking her about her new marks, for fear of making her self conscious, since most people could tell she was attempting to hide them. Everyone admitted to being worried, but only a select few, like Blaze and Vanilla, actually would ask her about it or come to her with their concerns.

In terms of the coma, Amy was still cold, and not only was she cold but during week three she started shedding, which dropped her temperature again and lead to almost constant shivering despite the heated blankets meant to keep her warm. Her fur still hadn't turned back to its regular color. Her breathing was shallow and her heart rate slow. In short, Amy wasn't doing so hot, pun intended. Something only Sonic had noticed, but was too embarrassed to tell the others, he knew under her Amy was covered in scars.

She was hiding something, that of course was obvious to everyone, but what was the scary question they were itching to know the answer to. However, the guys agreed that when she woke up, they would try to hold off on questions about it until she felt better. It was something she was hiding from literally everyone; she had been carrying that weight for so long asking her about it right out of a coma might have brought all of it crashing down on top of her. They wanted her to have the best recovery possible. Usually when someone keeps a secret from their friends, the friends feel hurt and angry, but these guys understood. She was going through something completely alone and was probably scared. They couldn't be mad at Amy, they needed to be there for her.

In order to keep Amy's situation under wraps, whenever someone asked about her they would say she still was out of town, and they weren't exactly sure when she would come back but they would let everyone know once they heard anything. The team also told people they were house sitting while she was gone, so no one thought it was strange when they came in and out of her place. Rumors had spread that Amy had jumped town and was never coming back and others who said she was a secret agent for G.U.N. and that was why no one, not even the people closest to her knew where she was. Team Sonic ignored the hearsay, as long as Amy was left alone what the townsfolk believed didn't matter.

It was Sonic's turn to watch over her for the night, and has time went by it started to feel like a normal part of his routine. And it made him feel terribly guilty. Seeing her lay there for so long reminded him that she had been hurt while he was there, and whatever happened to her should have happened to him. That's how he felt anyway. He was the so called hero, the fastest thing alive, and yet he let Amy get hurt. Someone he cared for deeply. Someone he… Anyway staying there made him feel awful, but on the other hand he would rather be there protecting her than be anywhere else. That way he could prevent anything more from causing her pain, and maybe he could stop that betrayal the dream Amy had talked about.

So he went ahead and snuggled up to her like he had all those nights before and held her snuggly next to him, hoping to keep her safe and warm. He was half asleep when he thought he heard something. Then he felt Amy's hand lay gently on his arm. Sonic was too tired to register what was going on at first but then he thought he heard a whisper.

"Ames? Are you okay?" He yawned out, practically asleep even though he was asking.

"Sonic?" There it was. He was no longer asleep. It was like he had been hit over the head with the energy stick.

"Waoh," He sprung right up out of her bed, "Amy you're awake!"

"Yeah," She lazily replied, "And you were in my bed. Why were-" She didn't get to finish because Sonic was hopping around her room, talking into his communicator.

"Guys get over here! Amy's up!" he dashed back to the bed and gave her the biggest bear hug he could muster.

"What's going on? Are you okay?" Amy wasn't used to Sonic being so affectionate.

He pulled away from her and looked right into her green eyes and said, "Amy, I'm never going to let anything bad happen to you ever again."

"Thank you, that's very sweet, but what do you mean? What happened? Why am I so sore?"

Sonic was too euphoric to answer at the moment, he was so excited he wasn't sure what she was saying. She said he was sweet. Or something to that effect. That's when everyone else barged in through her front door. Knuckles picked her up right out of bed and Sticks and Tails jumped up to give her a big oh my stars you're awake hug.

Amy winced, the hugs didn't feel great, but she appreciated the gesture. "Wow, I should wake up in the middle of the night more often," she joked.

"How are you feeling Amy?" Tails asked, still squeezing her tight.

"I'm sore," and with that the hugging stopped and she flopped back onto her bed.

"Oh sorry,"

"No it's okay I love getting hugs, but I feel sore, and heavy, and tired." She tried to blink the tired out of her eyes.

Sticks gasped, "Tired? How can you be tired? You just slept for a whole month!"

"I what?"

"Yeah Amy you'd think a month of beauty rest would have done you some good." Knuckles cracked.

"You probably won't feel normal again for awhile, your body isn't meant to be imoblie for weeks at a time." Tails informed.

"What are you guys talking about?" Amy raised her voice a little, not to the point of yelling, but enough to make her the loudest in the room. "What about the Chaotix? What do you mean I've been asleep for a month? Why am I in so much pain?" she felt a few frustration tears prick her eyes.

Her friends all shifted awkwardly. "We don't know exactly what happened," Tails admitted.

Knuckles agreed, "Yeah, we can't remember,"

"We're here now, so we think we're safe until the next disaster comes our way," Sticks added.

"But you've been in a coma since we got back a month ago,"

Amy felt nothing short of shocked. In fact shocked doesn't do justice for just how surprised she felt. She felt as though someone had taken her hammer and swung at her with it both physically and emotionally. "I've been doing nothing for a month?" Amy asked, talking to herself more than anyone else. She quickly threw back the covers and tried to get herself out of bed and was swiftly greeted by the floor with a thud. Her breathing got faster, "My legs," she was talking to herself again. Then she thought she saw something odd. Moving her arm up as close to her face as possible she was right, and her fur was not only white and not it's usual bubblegum pink, it also had bald patches. Amy could hear her heartbeat roaring in her ears.

Her fall out of bed happened quicker than any of them had expected and when she didn't respond to the collective, "Amy!" they all inched their way closer to see her laying there muttering to herself as she inspected her arm. Sonic kneeled in front of her.

"Amy," She didn't say anything back so he continued, "Hey, it's okay, you're okay, everyth-"

"I can't walk, why can't I walk?"

"Amy, it's been a whole month since you've walked last, you'll have to build up strength in your legs again,"

"And my fur, what happened to my fur?" She couldn't stop shaking.

Sticks took over that one. "We don't know, one minute you were pink, next thing we remember boom you're white."

"And the pain?" All Amy could think to do was ask rapid fire questions.

"Where do you feel the pain Amy?"

"Everywhere," she said, staring off at nothing. "It's an aching pain. I'm sore."

"It could be a result of the coma, or it might be whatever caused the sudden change in your fur." Tails was doing his absolute best to answer her questions, hoping that telling Amy what he knew would put her at ease.

She gasped, "I've been missing out on all of my responsibilities, the readings, the classes, all the things I said I would do for the town I have to-"

"Don't worry Ames, we took over for ya," Sonic gave her a wink.

"Yeah, we've been taking your place, and I think we have been doing a pretty good job." Knuckles sounded genuinely proud.

She nodded, and slowly stopped shaking, but was still looking off into space until she felt Sonic's hand on her shoulder, then she looked directly at him.

"Ames, I'm gonna help you get back up alright?"

She just shook her head in agreement as she let Sonic put his hands on her waist and hoist her back up on the bed. She felt like a rag doll, limp and useless.

"Don't cry Amy, you will be up and about before you know it," Sticks encouraged.

"And I kinda like your fur all white like that, reminds me of that guy Silver?" Knuckles wasn't very confident in his conclusion, but that was what he said and he just left it at that. And even though she was still rather upset, Amy smiled because she knew her friends were doing their best to cheer her up.

Tails was the first to yawn, then everyone else began to yawn as well.

"Amy, I'm real happy you're up but I get to get back to sleep." Sticks said through a yawn.

"Me too," Knuckles agreed.

"Me three," Tails stretched. "Sonic, you don't mind staying here do you?" Sonic opened his mouth to answer but then Tails changed his question. "Wait.. I mean Amy, Amy do you mind if Sonic stays with you in case you need him?" he yawned again.

"No, I, I don't mind." Amy was still a little distant.

"Well, we'll be back tomorrow, see you guys," he waved as he, Sticks, and Knuckles walked out.

Sonic plopped himself back into the chair and closed his eyes, then Amy just started talking.

"Damn it."

He blinked his eyes open and looked over at her.

She glanced at him. "I know it's not ladylike to swear but damn it. Damn it all." She used all the strength she could muster, which wasn't much and hit the mattress with the side of her fist. "I was in a good place in my life. I was the strongest I'd ever been, able to keep myself and others safe, I had enough time to sign myself up for all kinds of responsibilities around town, I was busy, I had a schedule, there was a garden outside I was tending to, a scarf I was knitting, a good book to read and once I finished reading it I was going to try and start a book club. And now… I've been bedwritten for a whole month, and I probably won't be able to walk myself outside for a while. Everything was going great, I was balancing hero work and a life and now I can't do either." Amy took a breath. "The worst part is that it's my fault. I let myself get hurt and now I can't help anyone, not even myself." She growled and hit the bed again.

Sonic walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. "Hey it is not your fault. I think whatever it was you did saved us all. You did what you had to." He wanted to admit how guilty he had been feeling, like it was his fault she was hurt but he couldn't find the words.

"I'm so mad. I just want to break something." She was fuming, she was so mad her emotions could have lit a fire. "What makes me even more upset? Is that I'm not even strong enough to break anything."

Sonic thought for a second. "Do you have toothpicks in the kitchen?"

"Yes. Wh-" Before she could ask why he was back with a little pocket full of toothpicks.

"Break these." he set the box beside her and took one out for him just to chew on.

She picked one up and one end clenched it in her fist, and pushed on the other end with her thumb until it gave way with a satisfying little snap. Amy's eyes widened. "Could you get me the trash can out in the-" she felt the breeze of him leaving and whipping back in as he placed it down next to her bed. One after another she snapped snapped snapped the little toothpicks until she was breaking two at a time, one in each hand, then four at a time, then six, until the box was empty. She exhaled, and realized she felt much better. Looking back at Sonic, she saw he wasn't asleep yet either. "Thank you,"

"No problem Ames."

She remembered something from earlier that night, before he had gotten all of their friends over. "Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"Were you sleeping with me earlier?"

"What? Was I um, sleeping with you? Well, I uh, wouldn't say sleeping with, I was more so just sleeping by." Sonic had hoped she hadn't noticed and was flustered by her asking.

"So you were sleeping by me?"

He had no idea what he should say, unable to detect if she was angry. She was already mad enough, he didn't want her to be mad at him. "Yes, I guess you could say I was," He was losing his cool, but he couldn't help it, he just wouldn't stop talking. "But you were cold and your bed is comfortable so I just started to doze off and-"

"Sonic," Amy let out a giggle at his nervousness, "I was just asking to see if you still wanted to sleep by," and she put an emphasis on the word by, "Me instead of that uncomfortable chair." She couldn't help but smile at seeing him all worked up. "If you were sleeping with me it would be a different story," Amy looked at him and winked, "But since you're just sleeping beside me I won't make you take me out on a date first."

It was dark enough so Amy couldn't see how much he had been blushing but she could tell he was still gushing because he hadn't answered.

She laughed at him. "I'm just giving you a hard time, now come on, are you going to take your spot back or not?" Since he was already sitting on the edge of the bed, he just kind of slid back to the top of the bed, about where he had been laying before. Amy laid her hand on top of his and let out a yawn. "You told me what happened wasn't my fault and you need to accept that it wasn't yours either." Her weary eyelids began to close. "It's like you said, you did what you needed to do." The words barely escaped her mouth as she fell back asleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

In the morning, Amy was the first to wake up. With a glance to her side she saw the blue blur, breathing heavily enough to suggest that he was sleeping like a rock. Though it warmed her heart to see him look so peaceful, she felt her stomach growl and that was when it hit her that she hadn't eaten for a month and all she could think about was food. She had to get Sonic up.

"Sonic," She said softly. Nothing came of it, so she tried again, a little louder, "Sonic," but still nothing. Placing a hand on him, she attempted to shake him awake. And yet, he still wouldn't wake up, so she turned on her wrist communicator and tried to contact Tails first. No response. Knuckles? Nope.

"Sticks?"

"Amy?" Sticks didn't sound tired so much as just confused.

"Thank goodness you're awake, everyone else is still asleep."

"You know I don't sleep past 5 a.m. I can't be surprise attacked if I'm wide awake bright and early."

Even though Amy wasn't sure why Sticks was worried about being ambushed if she slept passed 5 she wasn't about to ask. She had a goal. "Could you bring me some food? Actually not some food a lot of food, I'm starving."

"Sure thing, what would you like?"

What did she want? Burgers? Fries? Burgers and fries? Waffles with melting butter and dripping in maple syrup? Hot greasy pizza with extra cheese? Cake? No, chocolate cake. She was too hungry to make a decision. "Anything, it doesn't matter," As she said that her stomach growled again.

"I've got it, see you soon." And with that Sticks signed off.

Food was on the way. That was all she could think about as she listened to her stomach throw a fit. In unison her mind and tummy were chanting; Food. Food. Food. Oh and water. Water sounded like the most refreshing thing on the planet at the moment. After a month of not eating or drinking she was not only hungry, but was extremely dehydrated. If Sonic had been up she would have had him go get her some from her kitchen, but she figured she would wait for Sticks. She desperately wanted to make a list of things she wanted to accomplish for the day, but couldn't focus long enough to do so. The ravage hunger had taken over. At that point she would have crunched down on some uncooked pasta or rice if she had to and if she had the ability to get herself out of bed, it's possible that is what she would have been doing. Even though there was food in the house, she didn't exactly trust her friends to be able to cook for her, unless Vanilla and Cream came over.

Practically bursting in through the front door in came Sticks carrying a couple sacks of food.

"Thank you so much," Amy exclaimed when her friend dropped the bags onto her bed, while immediately beginning to rummage through them. Sonic jumped and fell right out of bed.

"Ow," he grumbled.

"Sorry Sonic, your girlfriend is hungry," Sticks was teasing, but it made Sonic nervous that she had seen him passed out on Amy's bed.

After trying and failing to sit up on her own, Sonic helped put her pillows upright and scooched her so she was leaning against them. Then both he and Sticks watched in amazement as Amy ate every single thing Sticks had brought her. Oatmeal? Gone. Pasta salad? Gone. Pancakes? Gone. Sandwiches were there one second and gone the next. It was like watching a champion that had trained her whole life for that moment. No talking, no distractions. They were pretty sure she wasn't quite looking at what she was eating, she was just going for gold.

"Can I please have some water?" Amy said out loud without looking at anyone, so Sonic ran to her fridge and back with a water bottle. "Thank you," she downed the bottle in seconds. Finally she turned her attention back to Sonic and Sticks, who she could feel watching her. "Really thank you, I feel so much better." she patted her stomach to show her satisfaction.

"That was so cool. Have you ever thought about entering an eating competition?" Sticks was enthralled by Amy's ability to eat so much so quickly in such a short span of time.

"I'm sure I could win one if I tried but it's something I'm really interested in doing." Eating competitions seemed a little undignified. Usually when she ate Amy liked to be as neat and polite as possible, this was an exception because of the circumstances. Actually, eating in her bed felt a little strange. She hoped soon she'd be up and moving so she could eat in the dining room.

"What else do you need Amy?" She heard Sonic's voice come from behind her. He moved so fast she hadn't even noticed he moved to the other side of the room, closer to her.

"Well, the first thing I want to do is stand up." Yeah. That was one thing she truly wanted to at least be able to stand. Even if it wasn't on her own, she wanted to be on her feet again.

"Wait, Tails and Knuckles have to be there for that, they'll want to see your first steps," Sticks protested.

Amy let out a laugh. "Okay, okay, I'll wait for them but it's not like you guys have never seen me walk before."

"Yeah but…" Sticks got real quiet, to the point of almost whispering, "We've never seen you not able to walk before."

That's when it dawned on Amy that last night had been just as scary for her friends as it had been for her. She was so panicked she forgot they were there and had to watch her fall onto her floor and see her start to shake and crumble apart.

It had been awful. Amy had a tendency to wear her emotions on her sleeve and everyone had seen her cry, scream, or get angry. However, none of them had seen her like that before, so weak, so frightened, so… Broken. Even afterwards, no one felt like talking, and Sonic was glad to stay, because he was afraid of how she would have been if they left her alone. The three friends that had been there were all on edge, wondering whether or not Amy would truly be okay again.

"I'm sorry, I didn't even think about how you guys felt last night, I was just so caught up in how I was feeling that I lost it a little," she admitted.

"Don't feel bad, you were confused and scared." Sonic paused and took a deep breath. "We all were."

"Yeah, we had been scared since the moment we knew you were in a coma. I'm paranoid all the time and even though I was scared out of my wits." Though it was touching that Sticks felt that way, it didn't exactly make Amy feel any better. And she only felt more horrible as she kept talking. "I thought we wouldn't be able to fight side by side for the freedom of the people against the machines. For a while Tails was thinkin' you weren't ever going to wake up."

"Sticks!" Sonic snapped. He could see this speech was making Amy well up.

"Wait, you guys thought I wasn't-"

"Hey, guys, whats up?" Tails smiled as he came in with Knuckles trailing in after.

"We're just telling Amy how horrible it was while she was in her coma," Sticks blurted out.

"It was so boring watching you sleep all the time," Knuckles grumbled.

"I thought for sure you weren't going to make it, all the signs were pointing toward you getting worse as time went on, I have all of our accounts of the changes we noticed if you want to read them. You were cold, had low blood pressure, had difficulty breathing,"

"Tails," Sonic whispered.

"And when you started shedding I was a wreck. It was such a bad sign amongst all the other bad signs that I started to believe-"

"Tails," Sonic said more aggressively. The fox stopped talking. Poor Amy was doing her best to hold back her tears and she was visibly shaking. "It wasn't all bad, right guys? I actually really liked helping out with the self defense class, it was a lot of fun," He did his best to brighten the mood a little even though he was super frustrated. How could they not tell those weren't the best things to focus on right now?

"I got to dig holes for the new community garden," Knuckles chimed in. There, that made the blue hedgehog a little more at ease. He always does his best to seem nonchalant but how cruel would it have been to let them keep going on like that? Pretty soon everyone had at least one favorite filling in for Amy moment, if not several.

Tails recounted he enjoyed reading to the kids at the library. "There was a kid at the library who tried to get me to read the dictionary during children's hours. He did it every week!"

"Owen? Oh he won't stop asking even though he knows the answer," Amy smiled at the memory of that small boy just wanting to know what the dictionary was about, as though it was a regular book.

"One old lady really got me with her cane," Sonic paused while his friends laughed. "She apologized afterwards but I told her not to worry about it, now she knows it's an effective weapon."

"I can't believe I missed the entire class, I was so excited, I had so much planned!" Amy was disappointed, but beamed at the idea of Sonic stepping in to help.

"Since it went so well, we think there will be another class a few months from now,"

"That's amazing,"

"Now I understand why you go to town meetings Amy, you have to dismantle the government from the inside out." Sticks was off in her assumption, but Amy nodded along anyway.

Amy's ear twitched to alert her to a knocking sound coming from the other side of her front door. "Someone's here."

Tails hopped up from his seat, "Oh, it's Cream and Vanilla," he left the room to let them in.

Knuckles looked over at Amy tilted his head a little, almost in confusion. "You must have good ears."

"I didn't hear anything and I have excellent senses." Sticks and Knuckles were impressed.

"It is my house, I'm used to all the noises around here."

"Amy!" A small bunny sprinted into Amy's room to give her the biggest hug she could. The poor thing had giant, hot rolling tears streaming down onto Amy's fur.

She hugged her back the best she could. "Cream! Oh, it's okay, don't cry!"

"I know I'm just so happy, it feels like it's been forever since I last saw you Amy."

Her eyes began to water for the second time that day. She didn't really have time to miss all of her friends, since it had felt as though she had taken a nap, but everyone else had to be awake for a month waiting around for her to get up. Cream let go and climbed her way back down from her bed to Vanilla's side. Knowing she would have to say something before she started bawling, Amy said, "So, who's going to help me get up and out of bed today?"

Looking around the room, she could tell no one had been prepared for her to ask that question. When she was answered by silence, she knew what to do to get the response she wanted. She threw back the covers and used all the strength she could muster into her arms, pushing herself forward ever so slightly. Sonic was by her side before she could hurl herself onto the floor again. Everyone in the room had certainly moved but he was the fastest.

"Woah, be careful," he spoke with a casual, almost joking tone, just to articulate to everyone that he wasn't taking this so seriously, and they shouldn't either. However, that was just him acting cool on the outside. On the inside? He was losing it. Even though logically Amy falling from her bed to the floor would have been the worst case scenario, Sonic's heart did a full cartwheel of panic. Maybe it was because he didn't want a repeat of the night before. Maybe he cared more than he let on. Or both. No matter the reason, this gesture more or less assigned him with the role of helping.

So the blue hedgehog took the not-at-all-pink hedgehog's hands in his and pulled her up. Unfortunately he did so with a little too much force and she crashed into him. Sonic stumbled back a bit and Amy leaned on him but neither one fell. He chuckles and she giggled.

"Hey Amy, you got some of your color back," Tails mocking shattered the moment.

"You're almost as red as I am," Knuckles snickered.

Amy gave her friends a menacing side eye and an audible, "Hmph" as she turned her attention back to Sonic. She could hear the audible change in his breathing and his fur stood on end. His hands were still tightly holding hers. The butterflies in her stomach were going bezerk. Focus. Amy needed to focus. So she pushed herself back just enough so she wasn't leaning on him anymore and held his hands to keep herself up and stable.

"Oh, would you look at that," Vanilla said in awe and the room grew quiet.

Amy was standing.

Sure she was using Sonic to keep herself up and balanced, but it wasn't so different from having a cane or a walker.

"I told you guys I was going to stand up today!" Amy would've jumped in excitement, but she wasn't quite stable enough for that yet. Sonic stood with her, holding her hands, keeping her as steady as possible, and he was staring. Impressed, aestruck, gobsmacked, all good ways to describe how he was feeling. Amy had gone from crying on the floor hours ago to putting all her energy into getting out of bed. The way her eyes sparkled when she accomplished just that? She was radiating with life as though she hadn't been in a coma for an entire month.

A little uncomfortable with how silent the room had become, Amy felt compelled to say something. "Well, come on, why stop now, let's try some walking! I'm not going to get anywhere by standing in one spot." Not only was everyone quiet, but she didn't even hear them move. "Come on Sonic, let's get to steppin," she prompted again while giving his hands a gentle squeeze. He tensed up for a second, but slowly took a step backward. Carefully she lifted her foot and began to shake as her other foot took on her body weight. She tightened her grasp on Sonic, using him as a way to press herself forward. And down. She wiggled and jiggled with brining the second foot forward as well, but before long she had taken a full step. An awkward uneasy step with little to no strength, but a step forward is a step forward.

"Wow, you did it Amy!"

"That was so cool,"

"I'm so proud of you."

Even though Amy could hear all of her friends cheering her on, she was too euphoric from taking the step to actually listen. "Let's get me out of this room," she whispered, partly to Sonic, and partly to herself.

"Wait what?" Sonic blinked and shook his head. He wasn't able to think clearly, all he could do was stare at her and think about how tough she was. So when she spoke he was too foggy to understand.

"Come on, we have to get me out of here!" Vibrating, both with the effort she was putting in to standing, and excitement, she lifted a foot, giving Sonic no choice but to step back out of her way. Another step down. Ha! She'd be out in the world in no time, Or she hoped anyway, she felt incredibly worn out already. But who needed to know?

Tails had some concerns and began to protest, "Wait, are you sure you can-"

"Of course she can, did you see that? Two full steps! She's got this."

"Let's hope she can handle it," Knuckles crossed his arms, not convinced two steps proved she could make it out of the room, but hey, he wasn't going to stop her from trying.

"We'll be here if you need us," Vanilla said with Cream nodding along.

"Yeah!"

Sonic broke himself out of his staring spell long enough to give his words of encouragement, "Ames, you've got this!" and took another step.

She rolled her eyes, "Guys, I just want to walk to the living room," her friends were dorks but she couldn't stop smiling at their mixture of worry and positivity.

"To the living room we go," Sonic exclaimed, taking a quick look behind him as he began to make his way toward the doorway.

One shaky awkward step at a time. For everyone watching it was like two people who didn't know how to dance. Sonic would take a full step back. Amy would take a st-ep forward. Though it was a strange sight to see, the team effort was effective, it got Amy out of her bedroom and into the living room.

With a sigh mixed with relief and exhaustion Amy admitted, "I'm glad to be out of that room! But now I need to sit back down."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

It had been a little over a week, and Amy was making great progress, or at least her friends thought so, but they weren't quite able to convince her. She had been in a mood, like she was on the verge of lashing out, restraining herself enough to just be passive aggressive. Sonic finally agreed to take her outside next time he came over, he hoped this outing would make her feel better emotionally, and physically. In fact, he had decided to take a run that morning, and he had almost forgotten how great it felt. The rush of the wind through his quills, all his worries too slow to catch up, the look of the world as it blurred and blended into colors of nature, the fresh air, all coming together to lift him up. Then his communicator flashed on.

"Sonic, I have a quick question," he heard the fake laissez-faire tone Tails put on.

"Hit me with it," He tried to respond in kind to the calm front.

"I was just wondering, is Amy with you?"

Sonic put on the breaks so fast he nearly tripped over himself and Tails could hear him stop through the communicator.

"No," Sonic started running back to town. Again, he attempted to play it cool. "Why?" He had barely asked the question as he came to a screeching halt. Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks were all standing outside her house.

Tails started to explain, "I got here and the door was open and so I asked Knuckles if he'd seen her-"

"And I said no-"

"Right, so then I called Sticks a-"

"I said why would she be with me, it's too dangerous for her to be with me, ya know, because I'm always being watched."

"I knew Amy had been asking to go out so I thought maybe she was with you and that was why her door was so carelessly left open,"

Tails kept rambling but Sonic couldn't hear him. Because he knew what happened.

"Then I thought that Amy wouldn't let you just leave her door open so,"

"Eggman." Sonic felt the world melting around him, everything hadn't stopped, it was slowly drifting away as he thought of that dream he had. Maybe it was more than a dream. It was a warning.


End file.
